Notes

Suture bulge, really good taste

Description

New variety from peach breeding program of Dr. Dennis Werner, NC State Univ. Plant Patent #12357 issued on Jan. 15, 2002. Cold hardy and improved resistance to bacterial spot when compared to Redhaven. The new and distinct variety of peach originated from a hand pollinated cross of `Redhaven` x (NCA001, NCA002, and NCA003 bulk) made in 1987 at the Sandhills Research Station at Jackson Springs, N.C. NCA001, NCA002, and NCA003 all originated from the 1981 cross of `Reliance` x `Biscoe`. `Biscoe` was released and named as a peach cultivar by the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service in 1968. `Reliance` was released by the University of New Hampshire in 1964, and `Redhaven` was released by Michigan State University in 1940. None of these three varieties are patented, and all are currently available in commerce.
Plants and fruit of this new variety differ phenotypically from its parents. The new variety produces medium, yellow flesh, firm fruit that ripen in early July in North Carolina, about 2 weeks after `Redhaven` and `Reliance`, and 2.5 weeks before `Biscoe`. The round, smooth fruit have attractive red skin color, the foliage and fruit have high bacterial spot resistance, and the flower buds, flowers and young fruit exhibit high resistance to freezing temperatures. The new variety differs from `Reliance` in having more attractive fruit skin color, firmer flesh, improved flesh texture, and larger fruit. The new variety differs from `Redhaven` in having higher resistance of the flower buds to freezing temperatures, and greater resistance to bacterial spot disease. Plants of the new variety are very vigorous and grow rapidly after establishment of trees in the field. Young trees have averaged 2-3 feet of growth per year. Plants are semi-upright in growth habit. The angle between the trunk and main branches average 75 degrees. Flowering sometimes occurs in the second year of growth, but more commonly trees begin flowering in the third year after establishment. Flowers are single, medium pink, non-showy, and very attractive. Flowering usually begins in mid March in Raleigh, N.C.; the chilling requirement is estimated to be 1000 hours below 4 C., based on comparison of flowering time to known check varieties. Fertility of flowers is excellent, and fruit set is generally very high in most years. Flowers have shown excellent resistance to cold temperatures during winter dormancy and during flower development in the spring. Trees produced 40% of a full fruit crop in 1996, a year in which all commercial varieties in research plots failed to produce a fruit crop at the Sandhills Research Station because of low temperature injury. In that year, trees in flower were exposed to six consecutive nights of below freezing temperatures from March 9 through March 14, inclusive. Fruit are medium to large, averaging 6.6 cm, yellow fleshed, and show normal acidity typical of peach. Fruit ripen in early July in Jackson Springs, N.C., averaging July 7 over 5 years of observation. Resistance of foliage to bacterial spot disease is excellent. Bacterial spot resistance was assessed over three years of observation in field plots at the Sandhills Research Station, Jackson Springs, N.C. by rating trees for leaf defoliation after natural field infection.

Key

Evaluations are based on a 1-8 scale (6=OK,7=Commercially acceptable, 8=Excellent)